Upfront
12 MONITOR ON PSYCHOLOGY • SEPTEMBER 2013
With major immigration
reform legislation making
its way through Congress,
the July issue of the APA
journal Cultural Diversity
and Ethnic Minority
Psychology explores topics
such as how Americans
view illegal versus legal
immigrants, the impact
cultural values have on
anti-immigration policies
and how the uncertainty
of immigration status can
negatively affect young
students. Special Section:
“New Developments
in Research on
Immigration,” edited by
Nadine Nakamura, PhD,
Pratyusha Tummala-Narra, PhD, and Michael
A. Zárate, PhD, includes
articles on:
• “Reasonable
Suspicion About Tough
Immigration Legislation:
Enforcing Laws or Ethnocentric Exclusion?” by Sahana
Mukherjee, Glenn Adams, PhD, and Ludwin Molina, PhD,
of the University of Kansas. Support for tough immigration
legislation is more likely to reflect people’s opinion that their
own culture is superior, rather than feeling the need for
justice, the authors found.
• “The Complexity and Ambivalence of Immigration
Attitudes: Ambivalent Stereotypes Predict Conflicting
Attitudes Toward Immigration Policies,” by Christine Reyna,
PhD, DePaul University; Ovidiu Dobria, Malcolm X College;
and Geoffrey Wetherell, DePaul University. A mix of positive
and negative stereotypes is found to impact attitudes toward
immigrants, according to a study of 414 college students. This
research could explain why both attitudes and immigration
policies aimed at certain cultural groups are so complex, say the
authors.
• “Attitudes Toward Unauthorized Immigrants,
Authorized Immigrants, and Refugees,” by Kate E. Murray,
PhD, and David Marx, PhD, San Diego State University. People
express more prejudice against and perceive more threats from
undocumented rather than legal immigrants, according to this
study of 191 college students.
• “¿Y Ahora Qué? Anticipated Immigration Status Barriers
and Latina/o High School Students’ Future Expectations,”
by Ellen Hawley Mc Whirter, PhD, Karina Ramos and Cynthia
Medina, University of Oregon. Latino high school students
who anticipate immigration status problems are more likely to
feel discouraged from pursuing higher education than Latino
students who don’t face immigration problems, according to
this study of 475 Latino high school students.
• “Expanding Our Borders: Cultural Diversity and Ethnic
Minority Psychology’s Special Issue on Immigration,” by
Nadine Nakamura, PhD, University of La Verne; Pratyusha
Tummala-Narra, PhD, Boston College; and Michael A. Zárate,
PhD, University of Texas El Paso. A summary of the special
issue expands on the need for more research into immigrant
populations, particularly how being undocumented affects
psychological well-being, including differences and similarities
between legal and undocumented immigrants.
— AUDREY HAMILTON
New research explores how policy affects immigrants
T
hi
nk
sto
ck